Refund Policy

Our position

OrphanGive is a long-form commitment. Sponsorships fund the daily welfare of real children — their meals, their school fees, their books, their healthcare. Once a payment has been received and applied, it cannot simply be returned without affecting the child it was meant to support.

That said, mistakes happen. Cards get charged twice. Subscriptions continue past their intended end. Sponsors change their minds within the first days of giving. We recognise these realities and have built a refund process that is fair to donors and protective of the children we serve.

This policy explains when refunds are possible, how to request one, and what happens after you do.

When refunds are available

We will process a full refund in the following circumstances, no questions asked:

• Duplicate charges: if our system or your bank has charged you twice for the same sponsorship, we refund the duplicate immediately on receipt of your notice.

• Unauthorised charges: if a charge was made on your card without your knowledge or consent — including through fraudulent account access — we refund and we report the matter as required.

• Technical errors: if a payment was made due to a clear bug in our service, we refund and we fix the bug.

• Cancellation within forty-eight hours: if you change your mind about a sponsorship within forty-eight hours of the initial payment, we refund in full, no explanation required. This is your no-questions cooling-off window.

We will consider refunds on a case-by-case basis in the following circumstances:

• Personal hardship: if your financial situation has changed materially since you began sponsoring, write to us. We may refund recent payments and pause future ones.

• Service failures: if we have substantially failed to deliver what we promised — failed to provide updates for an extended period, lost contact with a sponsored child, or made administrative errors that materially affected your experience — we will refund affected payments and work with you to make it right.

• Misunderstandings: if you signed up believing the service was something different from what we provide, we will refund and we will improve our communication so others do not make the same misunderstanding.

In all case-by-case situations, we aim to respond within seven days and to make a decision that respects both the donor's circumstances and the welfare of the child.

When refunds are not available

Refunds are not typically issued in the following situations:

• Payments older than ninety days: funds applied to a child's welfare more than ninety days ago have already been spent on their behalf. Returning them would harm the child. We will work with you on cancellation of future payments, but historical contributions are generally final.

• One-time gifts: a one-time charitable donation made in full knowledge of what it was for is, by its nature, final. We may make exceptions for personal hardship as described above.

• Mid-month cancellations of an active monthly sponsorship: if you cancel partway through a sponsored month, the month's payment has already been applied. Your cancellation takes effect for the next billing cycle.

• Disagreements with our service direction: if you disagree with our editorial choices, our partner organisations, or our public positions, you are welcome to cancel future sponsorships, but we do not refund past contributions on grounds of changed views.

We exercise judgement, not strict policy. If your situation does not fit any category above, write to us. We will respond like human beings, not like a help desk.

How to request a refund

Send an email to **refunds@orphangive.org** (or hello@orphangive.org if that is more convenient) with the following:

• The email address on your OrphanGive account

• The approximate date and amount of the payment in question

• A brief explanation of the situation — one or two sentences is enough

You do not need to provide bank statements, screenshots, or documentation in your first message. If we need anything specific to process the refund, we will ask.

We aim to respond to all refund requests within three working days. Once approved, refunds typically appear in your account within five to ten working days, depending on your card issuer. For payments made by certain methods — bank transfer, mobile money in Bangladesh — the timeline may be longer.

What happens to a sponsored child after a refund

When a sponsorship is cancelled — whether through refund, withdrawal, or natural completion — the child returns to our list of children awaiting sponsorship. Their welfare is not interrupted; Children's Heaven Trust maintains a reserve fund that bridges the gap between sponsors, so no child experiences a sudden loss of support due to a cancellation.

We do not contact you, pressure you, or attempt to retain you when you cancel. We treat sponsor relationships as voluntary and respect the right to withdraw at any time.

Stripe and your bank

All payment processing is handled by Stripe. When we issue a refund, it is processed through Stripe back to the original payment method. We cannot refund to a different card or account than the one originally used.

If your card has expired or been replaced since the original payment, refunds typically still reach you — Stripe forwards refunds to the card's replacement on most major issuers. If a refund does not arrive within ten working days, contact us and we will work with Stripe to resolve it.

Disputed charges

If you have a concern about a charge, please write to us before opening a dispute with your bank or card issuer. A bank chargeback is a heavy process that costs us significant administrative time and can result in our payment processing being suspended. We can almost always resolve concerns directly and faster than a chargeback can.

If we cannot resolve a concern to your satisfaction within fourteen days, you retain the right to dispute the charge with your bank, and we will cooperate fully with that process.

Governing law

This refund policy is governed by the laws of Bangladesh. Children's Heaven Trust is registered with the NGO Affairs Bureau of Bangladesh under Registration No. iv-98/2021. Disputes regarding refunds are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Changes to this policy

We may update this refund policy from time to time. The "Last updated" date at the bottom of this page will reflect any changes. For material changes, we will email active sponsors at least thirty days before the change takes effect.

Contact

For any refund request or any question about this policy:

Children's Heaven Trust & Goodverse Foundation Operating OrphanGive Email: support@orphangive.org

We are a small team and we read every message.